Food pantries see increase in first-time visitors

With unemployment locally at a nearly 20-year high, workers at Springfield-area food pantries say they are seeing a lot of first-time visitors walk through their doors.

John Reynolds

With unemployment locally at a nearly 20-year high, workers at Springfield-area food pantries say they are seeing a lot of first-time visitors walk through their doors.

“The number of people seeking help has been gradually going up since last fall,” said Janet Nelson, supervisor of the Catholic Charities’ Holy Family Food Pantry.

“Especially in the last four to five months, we’ve been noticing a lot more new individuals or families who have never been through our program. We think it’s related to the economy — food prices, gas and things like that.”

The Catholic Charities’ pantry served about 1,066 families during the first four months of 2007. During the same period this year, the number ballooned to 1,198 families, an increase of 132.

On Monday, two of the people at the pantry were Bill Williams and his wife, Holly. Holly has a job, but Bill said he has been out of work for about six months.

“This will get us by for about (a) week,” Bill said as his food was packed up. “We had a lot of bills to take care of last week, so we kind of cut it short on food. It’s either the food or a place to live. That’s why we came here, so we could get some food and have both.”

Bill worked at an auto body shop until it closed. He said he hasn’t had any luck finding a new job, and the couple is supporting three children, ages 13, 9 and 4.

“It’s just hard trying to survive paycheck to paycheck. As soon as I get work, hopefully we won’t have to come to a place like this,” Bill said.

Not that he doesn’t appreciate the food from Catholic Charities.

“I’m glad they’re here to help,” Bill said.

Daryl Smith was another first-time customer at the pantry Monday. He said he does odd jobs that don’t always earn enough money, so he needed help getting food for himself and his four children.

“This will help out a lot,” Smith said.

Many of the new clients have jobs, Nelson said. Sometimes, two in a family are getting paychecks.

But it’s not always enough.

Some people, especially those earning the minimum wage, are finding it difficult to cover all of their expenses in the face of a rising cost of living.

“Some of them just need that one-time assistance to help them through that difficult time. But then again, we are seeing some who are on fixed incomes, the elderly and physically or mentally handicapped people who are coming in more often,” Nelson said.